Opinions of Thursday, 29 December 2011

Columnist: The Informer

Commentary: Make The Yuletide Incident-Free

The Informer would have wished that this year’s Christmas seasons was without any single disaster or incident ranging from armed-robbery, road accidents and fire outbreaks, but as always said, man proposes but God disposes; and that is where as humans we become powerless.
In fact; it had been our prayer that this yuletide recorded no weird occurrence following the public education carried out by bodies like the DVLA, National Road Safety as well as all the security arrangements put in place by the police forces to check all manner of crime; but yet, we are being taken by surprise.
The police did their best as required of them in restoring sanity in our society, with a well-mapped out strategy, and one was of the view that our drivers will reciprocate police effort, but unfortunately for Mother Ghana, she has lost twenty-seven (27) of her lambs; and it is indeed worrying.
The horrific incident on Tuesday night at Senya Beraku in the Central region has thrown this country into a state of mourning, and we know this has certainly put a damper on the efforts of the aforementioned bodies whose collective sweat really paid off, until this sad event greeted us. But all the same, we will urge them to continue with their good work, especially, since we are only handful of days away to mark the advent of a New Year.
The Informer is indeed worried about what has happened; but as issues stand now, what is important and which all and sundry must work toward is how to avoid any such occurrence as we wait to usher ourselves into the New Year. It is necessary we anchor our celebration of the New Year on a formidable rock that would not betray us to grief and tears.
Yes; lives have been painfully lost days after Christmas. We join others to sympathize with all the bereaved families and wish those at the Hospital speedy recovery.
It is relevant today, as it was immediately before Christmas, that all attention be directed towards the celebration of New Year’s day, which we all know will be observed all over the world with so many activities. We must do that with utmost social decorous, in order to avoid gory Senya Beraku incident being replayed.
One may not agree with us, though; it is a fact and whether somebody likes it or not, there will be so much activities and the atmosphere will be charged that people will forget themselves, and pour into the streets to mark the day. But should we continue to grieve after every celebration? No!
We, at The Informer do not want a repetition of what happened at Senya Beraku. It is in this vein that we make this passionate appeal to the general public to be watchful against bloodletting but avoidable incidents before and after the New Year’s Day celebration.
In fact, we cannot continue to lose lives in the name of celebrations. So, fellow Ghanaians, let us all be decent as we mark the New Year’s Day. Please, avoid any activity that will deface the New Year; and also do not use the streets as avenues for your events.
Once again, we express our heartfelt condolence to families that have lost their loved ones.